OVERTON, Roger

Relatively little is known of Overton’s career which appears to have been mainly confined to his home town of Southwark, where he set up in business as an ostler.2 CP40/677, rot. 229. What can be found principally concerns his involvement in property transactions, often as a witness alongside other prominent burgesses.3 CCR, 1422-9, p. 407; Corp. London RO, Bridge House recs., deeds CLA/007/EM/02/H/71. Towards the end of Henry V’s reign he was the subject of a petition to the chancellor, Bishop Langley of Durham, in which he and John Cheseman were accused of unlawfully depriving John Preston and others of their possession of two gardens and an acre of meadow in Southwark, at some point after May 1420. Preston and the rest had to pursue their case in Chancery as no assize of novel disseisin could be held during the King’s absence in Normandy.4 C1/4/430. Although records of Overton’s participation in borough administration are lacking, he was of some standing in the locality, and in November 1423, while his first Parliament was in session, he served on a jury at an inquisition post mortem held at Southwark on the property there held by Elizabeth, the long-lived widow of John, Lord Clinton. This property then descended to her late husband’s grandson, Lord William, for whom Overton witnessed the conveyance of ‘Clyntonesynne’ in 1425.5 C139/12/36; CCR, 1422-9, pp. 319, 322.

Overton acquired lands and tenements in St. George’s parish, which were conveyed to him by John Clipsham* (a knight of the shire for Surrey in both of his Parliaments) and Adam Levelord*, among others, but shortly after the dissolution of his second Parliament, in 1426, he made a formal quitclaim of them to several Londoners including the common clerk of the City, John Carpenter II*.6 Bridge House deeds CLA/007/EM/02/H/53. Overton’s property interests were not confined to St. George’s parish for he was also active in St. Margaret’s, in the Bankside area of the borough. A grant of July 1428 mentions a cottage at ‘Les Stewes’ by the Thames, then in his possession, and in December he and his wife Alice relinquished their joint interest in the cottage, a small garden and a moiety of a ditch, to John Bromer*, Alice’s son from her previous marriage, who was later to become a London alderman.7 Monier-Williams, 226-7. Presumably, Alice had brought to the marriage dower in properties in the City and at Uxbridge, but their location has not been discovered. Overton last appears, in February 1429, as a witness to a deed concerning lands in West Greenwich as well as in Southwark.8 Bridge House deeds CLA/007/EM/02/H/44.